


New Tricks

by APgeeksout



Category: Rectify (TV)
Genre: Post-Series, Pre-Relationship, Puppies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-30
Updated: 2017-05-30
Packaged: 2018-11-06 15:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,149
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11039100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/pseuds/APgeeksout
Summary: "Hello, Tawney." His words were as careful and quiet as ever, but the smile that spread over his face, putting little creases next to his mouth and crinkles at the corners of his eyes, was quicker to come and less burdened than she remembered."Hello, Daniel," she answered, wondering if her own smile was different than the one he'd last seen from her.





	New Tricks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SegaBarrett](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/gifts).



> Set a couple of years post-canon, after Daniel's been exonerated, Tawney's nearly finished a nursing degree, and they've each had a lot of time and care and therapy.

"This way, silly," Tawney said softly, guiding the leash over toward the Little League diamond and away from the squirrels Zeke was watching so intently. He cocked his fuzzy head at her and made a pleading noise, but when she took another step forward he gave in and came with her across the field, stubby tail wiggling as he bounded over the red dirt base paths.

As she crossed the third base line, Daniel rose from the grass to meet her, smiling shyly. His hair was still long, curling just a little at the ends, like in the photo Janet had taken in Memphis and hung in the living room, sandwiched between Jared's graduation portrait and a shot of her and Big Ted on the beach in Galveston.

"Hello, Tawney." His words were as careful and quiet as ever, but the smile that spread over his face, putting little creases next to his mouth and crinkles at the corners of his eyes, was quicker to come and less burdened than she remembered.

"Hello, Daniel," she answered, wondering if her own smile was different than the one he'd last seen from her.

She wasn't sure whether to hug him or what exactly, and maybe he wasn't either, because the corner of his mouth turned up wryly and he held a hand out to shake. She took it with a soft burst of laughter and let her hand, a little chapped with washing and disinfecting, tighten around his calloused fingers. Looking at their joined hands, she noticed how deeply he'd tanned and hoped that the story of all the time he'd spent in the sun lately - letting his arms and his face and the sliver of chest above his t-shirt's v-neck turn a warm brown - was a happy one. She hoped she'd get to hear it.

"I was very glad to hear from you," she offered.

"And I was very glad you took my call," he said, releasing her hand to gesture around them, "coming out of left field as it did."

She chuckled at the joke and toed at a clump of dandelions that no bored child had yet tugged up during the bottom of a slow inning.

"And what noble creature do I have the pleasure of meeting?" he asked, smiling down at Zeke, who was nosing at his sneakers, reveling in the dirt of other towns.

"This is Zeke. He came from the shelter, so I don't really know what he is," she said, "except for mine."

"Well, it seems like you know the most important part, then." A blue blanket was spread out on the grass behind them, and he gestured for her to join him on it, then eased into a crouch, one hand extended. "Hello, Zeke," he said cordially.

Tawney eased herself onto the blanket, smoothing the filmy material of her skirt down across her knees, and smiled at the flash of delight across Daniel's face when Zeke's cold, curious nose pressed itself into his palm, his pink tongue quickly following with a long sweep from the tips of his curved fingers all the way on up the inside of his wrist.

"I think he likes you," she said, and scritched her fingers through the shaggy red and white fluff of Zeke's back.

"The feeling is mutual." He scratched behind one perked up ear, and Zeke flopped onto the blanket between them, a puddle of happy, lazy mutt under Daniel's hand.

"Did you ever have a dog? Before..." She broke off, fidgeting with the nylon handle of Zeke's leash; just because the record had been put straight on paper now didn't mean that he'd want to talk about everything that had happened to him, and it definitely didn't mean that she knew how to talk about it with him without pressing old bruises. "Everything," she finished lamely.

"No, no I did not," he said thoughtfully. "I don't know why, but we never kept any pets when I was a child. Except that Amantha had taken in a kitten that summer, right before, well, everything." Zeke contorted his little chunk of a body to offer up his belly, and Daniel patted him gently. "My friend Kerwin had had a dog, before _everything_ came for him."

Zeke squirmed again, rubbing his face against Daniel's thigh and Tawney thought that if he could speak, he'd say _you're a good human; say your prayers; you'll be all right _.__

"A beagle named T.I. that he'd trained to do tricks. He used to worry about that dog some nights, waiting for him to come home, not understanding why he'd had to leave him behind." The unexpected smile he gave her was sad, but genuine. Like a lot of things about Daniel. "That dog is still keeping his Mother company in Atlanta. When I visited her, T.I. shook my hand."

"I bet your friend would have liked that," she said, watching Zeke loll around contentedly under the weight of Daniel's palm. "Knowing his two good friends could be good to each other."

"I really think that he would have."

After that, hey were quiet for a bit, letting Zeke be the center of attention, a role he was more than happy to take on, wriggling in the space between them to collect pats and scratches from both of them before suddenly leaping up and bounding across the grass, pulling the slack out of his leash as he stretched to nose at an empty popcorn bag carried past on the light breeze.

"What about you, Tawney? Did you have a dog as a little girl?"

"No," she started, worrying the slippery material of Zeke's leash between her fingers again. "I was in a lot of different homes at first, and then at Miss Kathy's, well, you could never tell when the next girls passing through might have allergies, or whether you'd be able to bring a pet with you wherever you got sent next. It wouldn't have been right, bringing something so innocent into that situation, knowing it'd just get pushed out or left behind in the end."

"Did you want one? A pet?" he asked softly.

Zeke gave up on the litter and wound his way back over to the blanket, running in a circle to wrap her up in one loop of his leash for good measure. She huffed at her silly dog, though there was more laughter in it than annoyance. Daniel reached out a hand to help her duck out of the coil of nylon.

"I don't know," she said honestly, thinking of all the times she'd had almost this same talk in sessions with Rebecca. "I think I didn't know how to want things, back then."

"And now?" His hand had slid down the length of the leash far enough for his knuckles to brush against hers.

"I'm learning." She smiled. "Getting better all the time."


End file.
